Trade Group Offers Calibrated Policy Approach To Curbing Loud TV Commercials Under Popular New Law

PITTSBURGH, July 11, 2011 - The American Cable
Association called on the Federal Communications Commission to implement the
CALM Act in a manner that minimizes cost burdens on independent cable operators
in their effort to embrace specific digital broadcast television practices that
will equalize the volume level between commercials and regular programming.

"Independent
cable operators agree that jarring volume spikes at commercial breaks are a
concern to consumers, although these annoyances have largely gone away with the
industry's adoption of new technologies and practices in recent years," ACA
President and CEO Matthew M. Polka said.

With
President Obama's
signature, the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act became law on Dec. 15, 2010. Regulations adopted under it by the FCC are
intended to ensure commercials are not louder than regular programming. The law incorporates and makes mandatory,
subject to waivers, the Recommended
Practice: Techniques for Establishing
and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television (ATSC A/85) approved
by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC).

"The
CALM Act seeks to address remaining concerns about loud commercial
advertisements in a targeted manner.
That said, implementation of the CALM Act, including obligations to
deploy, utilize, and maintain equipment, as well as the structure of the
complaint process, could place costly compliance burdens on independent cable
operators, even ones not directly involved in the insertion of advertisements. In adopting its regulations, the FCC should
seek to avoid imposing any undue burdens on these operators," Polka added.

In
comments filed July 8, ACA stressed that pay-TV providers should be
allowed to comply with the statute in multiple ways given the fact that there
is not equipment on the market that permits real-time monitoring, decoding, and
re-encoding of commercial advertisements. ACA also noted that because ATSC A/85
is a digital standard, analog cable systems are not affected.

In
its comments, ACA explained that most of its members do not insert any commercial
advertisements. Rather, most
advertisements shown on ACA member systems are inserted by broadcasters and
national cable networks. These cable
operators simply pass through the programmers' feeds, including their inserted
commercials, to their customers. ACA
stressed that it is not appropriate to hold these cable operators responsible
for commercials that they do not insert themselves.

With
regard to ACA members that insert commercials, ACA noted that most utilize a
third-party vendor and that the vendor
assumes responsibility for ensuring that the inserted commercials conform with
the ATSC A/85 standard. ACA members that
insert commercials deploy, utilize, and maintain the necessary equipment to
ensure that the volume level of these commercials is not louder than the preceding
programming.

ACA
urged the FCC to reconsider its tentative view that CALM Act requirements must
be met by only the pay-television provider and not a third party. In case the FCC decides that ATSC A/85 indeed
applies to pay-TV providers just passing through programming with commercial
advertisements inserted by a programmer, it should find in favor of compliance if
the pay-TV provider has a good faith expectation that these commercial
advertisements conform with ATSC A/85.

The
FCC should also find that a pay-TV provider is complying with the CALM Act if
the pay-TV provider has a good-faith expectation that the third-party vendor
inserting commercials is conforming with ATSC A/85 requirements. For ACA members that insert commercials
themselves, the FCC should find that installing, utilizing, and maintaining
equipment to ensure inclusion of appropriate dialnorm metadata is enough to be
in compliance.

Because
of the subjective nature of loudness, ACA is also recommending that complaints
filed under the CALM Act should supply verifiable information about the date
and time when the commercial advertisement was shown, along with the name of
the network and a description of the advertisement, including, if possible, the
extent to which the advertisement was louder than the long-form content.

ACA
also suggested that if a small cable company is found to violate the statute,
penalties should be limited unless a pattern of noncompliance can be
demonstrated.

Lastly,
ACA asked the FCC to grant an automatic one-year financial hardship waiver to
small cable providers that certify the need to install, utilize, and maintain
any equipment to ensure compliance with ATSC A/85, even if the CALM Act just
covers the insertion of local advertisements.

About the American Cable Association

Based in Pittsburgh, the
American Cable Association is a trade organization representing nearly 900
smaller and medium-sized, independent cable companies who provide broadband
services for more than 7.6 million cable subscribers primarily located in rural
and smaller suburban markets across America. Through active participation
in the regulatory and legislative process in Washington, D.C.,
ACA's
members work together to advance the interests of their customers and ensure
the future competitiveness and viability of their business. For more
information, visit http://www.americancable.org/

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